U.S. Patent Publication No. 2006/0029519, for example, discloses a conventional blood smear slide preparing apparatus for preparing a blood smear slide by smearing blood on a slide glass.
U.S. Patent Publication No. 2006/0029519 discloses a blood smear slide preparing apparatus for transporting a slide glass that is stored in a slide storing section, and smearing blood on the transported slide glass. In the blood smear slide preparing apparatus, a slide glass on which a blood is smeared is transported to a printing part configured by a thermal transfer printer, and sample-related information such as the sample number, patient name and the like is printed at a predetermined position on the slide glass (frosted area) by the printing part.
However, in the blood smear slide preparing apparatus disclosed in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2006/0029519, when attached matter such as glass shards and dust have become attached to the frosted area of the slide glass while the slide glass is transported from the slide storing section through the blood smearing position to the printing part, the sample-related information may be printed on the frosted area which contains the attached matter. In this case, the situation in which printing cannot be performed properly due to the attached matter in the blood smear slide preparing apparatus of U.S. Patent Publication No. 2006/0029519 must be considered. A smear slide preparing apparatus which is better capable of properly printing sample-related information is therefore desirable.